A TFT-LCD display with high performance may be obtained with application of a blue-phase liquid crystal to a liquid crystal display device. Compared to the conventional liquid crystal, the blue-phase liquid crystal has the following prominent advantages: the theoretical response time of blue-phase liquid crystal displaying can reach the level less than millisecond (ms), and the response speed may be 10 times quicker than that of common nematic phase liquid crystal, so blue-phase liquid crystal can be applied to a display apparatus requiring a fast response speed, e.g., a colored time sequence display; the blue-phase liquid crystal does not need any alignment layers, which can simplify the manufacturing process and lower production costs. Thus, the blue-phase liquid crystal has attracted wide attention.
But, the blue-phase liquid crystal display device is still limited to that of a transverse electric field type, and can not be applied to vertical electric field, because the current blue-phase liquid crystals employed by the liquid crystal display device are all positive liquid crystals.
FIG. 1 shows a structural schematic view of a blue-phase liquid crystal panel in the conventional technology. The conventional blue-phase liquid crystal panel comprises: an array substrate 1, a plurality of electrodes 2 disposed on the array substrate 1, a color filter substrate 3, and a blue-phase liquid crystal layer 4 disposed between the color filter substrate 3 and the array substrate 1. In the blue-phase liquid crystal panel, the plurality of electrodes 2 are arranged on the array substrate 1, and a horizontal electric field is formed by applying a potential difference between adjacent two electrodes 2. The distribution of the electric field is substantially as shown in FIG. 1. In the space between the array substrate 1 and the color filter substrate 3, the difference in electric field strength at different positions varies greatly along with the distances between the electrodes 2. Therefore, in the blue-phase liquid crystal layer 4 between the array substrate 1 and the color filter substrate 3, a greater electric field force is exerted onto the lower layer blue-phase liquid crystal molecule 42 closer to the array substrate 1, causing greater deflection, while a less electric field force is exerted onto the upper layer blue-phase liquid crystal molecule 41 further away from the array substrate 1, causing smaller deflection. Such non-uniform deflection is unfavorable for displaying. In order to increase uniformity of the electric field between the array substrate 1 and the color filter substrate 3, and to reduce difference, in the orientation and strength of the electric field between the lower layer blue-phase liquid crystal molecule 42 closer to the array substrate 1 and the upper layer blue-phase liquid crystal molecule 41 further away from the array substrate 1, to a minimum degree, higher operating voltages shall be applied to the electrodes 2.
Therefore, the problem of great energy consumption due to high operating voltages generally exists in the blue-phase liquid crystal panel and the blue-phase liquid crystal display device in the conventional technologies.